How to Sell Property in Andorra in 2016?

If you’re looking to sell property in Andorra, you will know for a fact that house prices Andorra are always very high – so, there is no doubt that you’ll get a good price for it. Sure, the property prices are still to reach the highs last seen in the pre-recession period of 2006, but they are much better than what they were as recently as 3 years ago.

As Gareth Jefferies from Alpine Property says, "The number of ski property buyers has decreased, probably halved from the peak in 2006. People felt super confident then, they are much more conservative now, it's to do with job insecurities and worries over the euro. The prices have come down from the bubble of 2006 and there is a lot of stock."

Andorra ski chalets were among the hottest selling properties in Europe in the 1990’s and 2000’s, till the 2008 crisis, when the demand for them fell down dramatically and property prices declined. But the luxury market in Andorra was still able to hold its head above water, aided by preference of top international business executives for Andorra.

Andorra is not only one of the top ski destinations in the world; it is also a tax haven, not dissimilar to Monaco. Some of the wealthiest people in the world have second homes or vacation homes in Andorra, which they visit once or twice in a year, during the peak tourist season.

So this means, at the high end, Andorra has a very competitive market – attracting the high and mighty of the world of business, as well as other high income people such as professional athletes, actors, fashion designers and other celebrities. But at the lower end – there isn’t much of a market in Andorra for houses targeted at the middle class. As a result, there are many chalet apartments in the lower end of Andorra’s real estate market that are sold for a real bargain, which has consequently pushed down the prices of other Andorra apartments in this category.

So much of the activity in Andorra real estate lies either at the high end, or at the lowest end of the scale, by which we mean budget apartments. Apartments targeted at the middle class have been largely pushed out of the game entirely.

As Niclas Dowlatshahi, who heads the Andorra based real estate firm Leapfrog Properties says, "Those left are either buying very small cheap units or they are buying the very best, luxurious properties in the top ski resorts. The middle income buyer (spending between €150,000 and €700,000) is hard to find right now."

Now, Andorra is still one of the most popular ski destinations in the world. While the 2008 recession did have an impact, this has been largely offset by the tremendous tourist interest in Andorra which continues to this day. The only issue is that the middle class is being slowly squeezed out of the Andorra property market, with the supply of apartments in this category much greater than the demand for this, which has depressed the prices to a large extent. It is for this reason that we have observed that a number of decent chalet apartments are being sold at bargain prices.

However, things are definitely looking better in 2015 and 2016 is expected to be great. Dom Flint of French Mountain Property explains that his firm has seen a dramatic increase in enquiries since December, 2014, because of a very successful ski season and the strength of the Sterling, which has led to a strong demand in Andorra properties from UK investors.